


the dead need no mourning

by Squishy_TRex



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-23
Updated: 2014-04-23
Packaged: 2018-01-20 12:22:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1510277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squishy_TRex/pseuds/Squishy_TRex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sharon made sure to break the news to her aunt. Because if she didn't, no one else would.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the dead need no mourning

No one bothered to tell Peggy Carter about SHIELD’s demise.

Sharon knows that for a fact. Maybe it’s because they think she’ll hear it from someone else or because everyone’s so busy struggling in the aftermath that it’s not even on their minds.

But deep down, Sharon knows it’s because no one thinks it matters if Peggy knows since she won’t even remember it within the next few hours.

This is the thought that sends Sharon out of SHIELD and into her aunt Peggy’s apartment.  

It’s only a little after 10:30 in the morning and Sharon had wanted to come by early, had tried to come as early as she could. The ruins of SHIELD were still smoldering, smoke and ashes that spread so thick over the city even though they can’t be seen. Someone had to clean them up and she was there, picking up the pieces, throwing away the broken ones and trying desperately to find anything salvageable. Anything left of the SHIELD her aunt Peggy had built.

Sharon had to come see her. Someone had to tell her what had happened, how all of her hard work and tireless effort had been utterly destroyed.

Which brings her to now, standing just outside the open door to her aunt Peggy’s room. It’s these thoughts that pace through her mind as she gently knocked on the door, the noise tearing her aunt away from the well-worn photo album she keeps by her bedside. She once told Sharon that it helped with the memories, made sure she remembered names and faces of the ones she loved.

At first, her face was still, puzzled, looking at Sharon held her breath. But after a moment her aunt’s face broke into a warm smile.

“Sharon,” Peggy said. A sigh of relief escapes Sharon at the sound of her own name. “It’s so nice to see you.”

Sharon’s face broke into a brilliant smile as she made her way over to her aunt’s bedside, dragging over the wooden chair she always kept in the corner for company.

Peggy reached over and clasped Sharon’s hands in her own, wrinkled hands wrapped over callused ones, any leftover smoothness being wiped away by

And suddenly Sharon was six years old again, sitting on the floor of her aunt Peggy’s stylish apartment, listening with rapturous attention to oft-told stories of freedom fighters and Nazis and of a woman who fought her way to stand beside the boys.

Sharon may be known as the incomparable Agent 13 to most of the world (except when she was, Kate, the nice nurse next door) but here, here she could be Sharon Carter, the little girl who grew up wanting to fight, to join SHIELD. The little girl who grew up wanting to be her Aunt Peggy.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” Sharon was shaken out of her thoughts by the dulcet British accent. It had never faded, despite her having made America her home since she met the bravest man who fought for it.

She built a life here. Sharon swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry.

Not just a life.

The one thing she had devoted her life to was gone.

“Aunt Peggy, I have some bad news,” she said, squeezing their joined hands.

She watches as the smile on her aunt’s face fades away. Sharon swallowed, the words fighting their way out of her throat.

“SHIELD….SHIELD was compromised,” she said, breathing deeply, forcing herself to look into her aunt’s eyes.  “HYDRA was working within it all this time,” Sharon blinked, feeling tears trying to push their way down her face. “It’s gone. It’s all gone. Captain Rogers and everyone at SHIELD who wasn’t HYDRA helped him destroy it.”

There was a beat, a moment of silence for lives lost, dreams destroyed, and hard work wasted.

“I’m sorry.”

Sharon breathed heavily, looking at the floor, her eyes tracing the odd pattern bored into the wood. She only raised her gaze when she felt a thumb softly grazing across her hand. Her aunt’s face had turned pensive.

“Don’t apologize, Sharon, you aren’t at fault” Peggy sighed deeply.  “The blame lies with us, with those who opened our doors to the wolves, mistaking them for dogs that could be tamed,” she smiled, but it was bitter. “I’m glad Steve could do what I wasn’t able to.”

Sharon wasn’t going to argue with that; she knew if Peggy had known what was going on, she wouldn’t have hesitated to put a stop to it.

 “I just- I’m sorry that you had to see everything you did, all your hard work and sacrifice, wasted like this.”

Peggy shook her head. She straightened up, as much as she could from her position in the bed and folded her hands in her lap.

“When I founded SHIELD, it was with the intention that we were not only going to protect the world from the threats it didn’t understand but to protect the people the world wasn’t ready to understand. I wanted, more than anything, to protect people and give them the opportunities that had rarely ever been afforded to myself. If I was to be in charge, there would be no barriers, no door would ever be shut in anyone’s face. I personally saw to the recruitment of the some of the first  person who wanted to help and gave protection to those who needed it.”

She sighed, pausing to glance at the worn photo album still next to her on the bed.

“That is the legacy I had hoped to leave behind. Not SHIELD itself, but its people. And though I’m sure HYDRA tried to drown out every good SHIELD agent there, every good thing that ever came out of SHIELD, I know for a fact that they were not successful.”

 She reached out and gripped Sharon’s hand firmly, looking straight into her eyes with a fierce gaze that Sharon was afraid had been lost to the dredges of time.

“SHIELD may be gone Sharon, but you’re still here. You’ve come so far from that little girl who used to sit in my living room and listen to my stories. You took those stories and made them your own.”

Peggy leaned forward, raising a trembling hand to Sharon’s face.

“You are proof that none of what I did was wasted.”  

Sharon could herself tremble slightly. It was the first time she had truly allowed herself to vulnerable since the wake of the attack and although no tears were shed, she felt like she was crying.

Her aunt smiled at her, tucking a strand of Sharon’s hair behind her ear, like she used to do when she was younger.

“Don’t waste time mourning SHIELD, dear. The world still needs its heroes, now more than ever. As long as you continue to fight, everything I worked for won’t be lost. The loss of SHIELD is one that I can bear.”

She leaned back into the pillows, releasing Sharon, who saw this as her moment to leave.

“I should go,” she said, feeling the last dredges of vulnerability ebb away.  “I have to take care of a few things, but I can stop by later tonight.” Peggy nodded, still smiling.

Sharon stood and made her way to the door, a framed picture of her and her mother with aunt Peggy catching her attention. She had been twelve at the time, the picture from an event where her aunt had been awarded a medal for her service. Sharon remembered how proud she had been on that day, how her heart had swelled with pride during the ceremony, how halfway through the speech her mother had leaned over to whisper, “that could be you someday.”

“Thank you for coming to tell me,” Peggy said, startling Sharon from her thoughts.  “And if you see Steve-“ Sharon could hear a sharp intake of breath, “will you tell him thank you for me too?”

Sharon turned to give her aunt one last look from the door. She smiled.

“Of course, aunt Peggy.”

\-------

That little girl who was raised on her aunt’s stories of heroism and spent every moment since hearing the first one fighting to be just like her, still wept for the loss.

The woman who grew from that little girl held her tears back and walked away, knowing that this loss was not the end. The war was not over and even without SHIELD, someone has to fight it.

So when she leaves, she doesn’t return to the husk of the Triskellion, to smoking ruins, frightened faces, and an endless list of traitors who were people that used to be friends.

Sharon Carter marches forward, throws away her SHIELD badge, and applies to the CIA.

Her aunt’s stories may have ended, but Sharon’s are just beginning.


End file.
